Symbiotic Reviews

52 Tuesdays

Director: Sophie Hyde

Year of Release: 2015

Running Time: 1 hour 54 minutes

Filmed in chronological order (one Tuesday per week), and told in a fractured, non-linear style, Australian filmmaker Sophie Hyde's feature debut is both formally ambitious as well as thematically probing. Centered around video diary entries from 16-year-old Billie (Tilda Cobham-Hervey, in a breakout performance) dealing with her mother Jane's (a naturalistic Del Herbert-Jane) gender reassignment transition, the film treats it's tricky subject matter with surprising frankness and gentle humor. Though Billie goes through the usual coming-of-age tropes--sexual awakening, social awkwardness, finding a small group out outsider-type friends--her maturation process is astutely juxtaposed with that of her mother's gradual gender transformation. This makes 52 Tuesdays feel potent in a way few coming-of-age tales do, and both Cobham-Hervey and Herbert-Jane deliver emotionally honest performances.